Sunday 12 February 2012

99er Race Week

I am in my 2nd Build Phase leading up to Argus Cycle Tour. From PMC below, blue fitness line has picked up nicely. As expected the orange form line has dropped to -20 (well below zero).


The next week is an easier week in terms of training duration, so the form line will increase nicely towards the Stellenbosch race coming Sunday.


On Wednesday’s Killarney Criterium, Raees joined us to take some action photo’s. I should create a gallery some time to add them all.



The wind was calmer this week, but to hold with the groups was just as challenging. After being dropped I set about to build my CP20 (personal best Critical Power over 20 min) , CP30 and CP60. I was elated with the info from my Garmin during the ride, indicating that I was hitting CP20, CP30, and CP60 targets. When I downloaded to Training Peaks the next day, I was puzzled to not see the ‘records’. After some investigation I found that I had a switch on the Garmin activated that was not taking my Zero power readings into determining the average. Bummer …..

The Saturday morning of the 99er race started well. We had home departure time, prep packing, warm up time all well nailed down. Weather was cool, rain threat, light wind, so all was looking good. The start was a good, steady pace. Within the first 20 min we came across the first crash of the day that had occurred in the previous start group. There did not appear to be serious injuries, but quite a few had roasties and would be bruised in the days to come. Throughout my ride I observed 4 bunch crashes. This came about because the starting gaps between group were too small causing bunches to become too large.

These crashes made life in the bunch quite a nervous affair. There were quite a few wheel rubs and scares, with people touching brakes more often than necessary. I sat at the back most of the time so as to keep safe, but it makes racing difficult especially when speed picks up, the gaps to close down at the back are magnified. I need to work on riding closer to the front of bunches, same goes for Killarney training rides.

I sat in my bunch well. My power average and heart rate was ‘low’ throughout, and I kept pace well when the speed picked up. Unfortunately at the 3h00 mark I punctured when I hit a pothole, causing me to complete my race in 3h41, excluding my time to repair my puncture.

All in all a good training week, 12.5hrs on bike, a good – well balanced 3h42 race, a new CP60 at Killarney on Wed, quality intervals on 3 climbs on Tues, and a good 3hr endurance ride on Sun.

Let’s Ride

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